Azrael's Story
by pam halliwell
Summary: This idea has been bouncing around in my head ever since they mentioned Azrael is a sister. Thought it would be so interesting to explore that.


"Hello Mother."

The Angel of Death had a deep raspy voice in her human form. She had shoulder-length black hair but sharp, piercing green eyes. Eyes that had seen every death imaginable and that gave you the impression they flicked and scanned a room without ever moving. She wore a black shawl with blue jeans and a thick metal cuff with symbols on it. Overall, she wasn't exactly what you would think Death looks like. She had a soft face - no sharp cheekbones like her mother's. She wasn't stunningly beautiful but attractive nonetheless. Her presence did not evoke despair or sadness as many would think. Instead, she exuded calm - not serenity - but a stillness that transcended years, ages and, most of all, feelings. She was grounded unlike any other creature you would ever meet.

Charlotte had been staring into a martini glass, playing with an olive at Lucifer's bar in his apartment when she heard the voice. She swivelled around and her eyes widened when she realised who it was.

"Azrael! My baby girl!"

Charlotte got up and tried to greet her daughter with arms wide open but Azrael quickly stuck her arm out.

"In case you've forgotten, I haven't been your baby girl in quite some time Mother. I'm here for my blade. That's it. Once I have it, I'll be off."

"Oh come on. At the rate we're going we'll have a full family reunion yet. Who knows? Maybe Michael will turn up eventually," Charlotte poured a martini for herself, "I can't believe that, of all the places, it had to be Earth… but just goes to show you what goes around comes around. Let me pour you a drink. I bet you're a Grey Goose kind of gal aren't you?" Charlotte winked at her daughter.

"Actually I prefer bourbon," Azrael deadpanned and began to look around Lucifer's apartment. "Speaking of what goes around comes around… where's Lucifer?"

Charlotte stopped pouring and looked up. "You told your father about the blade didn't you?"

Azrael looked frustrated. "Here we go. Just like old times. No, Mother, I did not go running to tell Daddy," she said mockingly, "I decided to handle this one myself."

Charlotte heaved a sigh of relief and approached her daughter hesitantly with her bourbon. "Well, I guess some things do change. I'm proud of you sweetheart."

Azrael gulped her drink and handed the glass back quickly. "I said I wasn't the one to tell Dad. That doesn't mean he hasn't noticed one of his sons is missing."

"Lucifer, we talk about your family a lot. Your mother… your father… your brothers... Amenadiel… and the guilt over Uriel," Dr. Linda Martin began cautiously.

"Yes, Doctor." Lucifer eyed her.

"But we tend to focus on the negative." Linda continued, trying to explain herself emphatically as was her way. "There must be some happy memories associated with your family."

Lucifer scoffed and played with the laces on his Italian leather shoes as he sat cross-legged.

"Hardly."

"Ok, so maybe," Linda looked up as she tried to rephrase her question, "More positive relationships… than others. Is there someone in your family you feel some special fondness towards?"

Lucifer glared at her, but then softened.

"Well, to be fair, I've always been partial to my sister."

"Your sister? I don't recall you mentioning you had a sister."

"She probably came up in passing when we were discussing Uriel but I just haven't gone into the specifics."

"Tell me about her," Linda smiled encouragingly.

Lucifer shuffled on the couch. "I'm not sure that's a great idea Doctor. I mean we're barely past you accepting I'm the Devil himself. My brothers, the more conventional angels, might be a bit easier to take in."

"What do you mean?" Linda looked confused.

Lucifer paused and finally sighed. "Because my sister, Azrael, is the Angel of Death."

Linda blinked at him, got up and poured herself a tall glass of water. She gulped it relatively quickly and Lucifer just stared at her. She put the glass down, took off her glasses, rubbed her eyes, put them back on and went back firmly to her seat in her most professional pose.

"Death is a natural part of the world we live in and, as a psychiatrist, I often have to help the bereaved. I'm just gonna take this as some kind of weird refresher course on how to better understand Death."

Lucifer laughed, impressed. "So the Doctor has her own coping mechanisms."

Linda smiled and made a motion for him to carry on.

Lucifer leaned back as he prepared to tell her the story.

"My sister is the youngest of us all. Naturally, she was coddled beyond anything you could possibly imagine. Mother loved her because she was the only girl. Father because she never questioned him. Simply batted her eyelashes and he'd wave his hand and give her anything she desired."

"And she's your favourite sibling?" Linda asked cautiously, noticing that this is not usually how this story goes.

"Yes, well, Azrael and I became a lot more alike as we grew…"

"I'm sensing there's more to this story Lucifer."

Lucifer got up and walked to the window and looked out pensively. "You see, Doctor, in order for me to explain my relationship with my sister, I need to go into a rather well-known technical issue. One that, well, we're not really supposed to talk about with humans. Certainly one I haven't spoken about in millennia."

"That's up to you Lucifer. Whatever you feel is comfortable."

Lucifer turned to Linda. "However, I don't think Father ever quite factored in his castout son going to a psychiatrist of all people… And you are bound by confidentiality."

"Of course," Linda replied confidently. She lowered her voice to say the next bit, "And Lucifer, in case, you haven't noticed, I haven't told anyone I cash cheques from the Devil because he has family problems."

Lucifer laughed.

"Right. It all started when Father, well, got a little bored. He started thinking and tinkering. Thinking and tinkering. That's all he'd ever do. We hardly ever saw him. Mother had no idea what he was up to. Azrael was the only one he'd actually speak to. He said he had a big job for her in store. That she would live up to her name."

Linda looked confused at this. Lucifer noticed.

"Azrael means 'help from God'."

"Ah, I see," Linda replied.

Lucifer nodded. "By that time, we'd all become a bit used to his funny moods. A celestial being blown to smithereens here, a random star being created there. But then things started to change." Lucifer paused. "How do I cut a long story short because it definitely took more than seven days… The world was formed, along with humans," he declared with his arms wide.

"So did God create humans or did evolution do that?"

Lucifer shook her off. "That's a very complex question to answer. The easiest way to say is it was a mixture of both. Anyways I've never been the expert on the subject. Amenadiel dedicated far more time to understanding it. There were a LOT of hits and misses, trials and errors. It took years, and I mean YEARS to get it right. Father viewed it as one big project. The more he obsessed over humans and the world, the less he paid attention to us."

Linda nodded, noting past conversations in their sessions.

"Azrael slowly began to guide the humans in whatever they wanted. There weren't a lot of them at the beginning obviously. She knew them the best out of all of us. She knew their strengths… and their weaknesses. She'd rant and rave about them … but in a way that wasn't arrogant like Father was. Azrael was always a sweet child. She genuinely found them fascinating… and eventually that fascination grew to love."

Lucifer's face saddened as he looked out the window. Linda waited patiently since he so rarely let any emotion show.

"Father loved humans but in a similar way to the way he loved us. He had created us all so he could always keep a certain distance from us. Azrael had not created humans so she mistakenly saw them as her equals. We all knew they weren't but she spent so much time with them she started to believe they had potential to be greater than they were designed to be."

Lucifer sighed heavily.

"And eventually she started to fall in love with one human in particular. I believe you've heard of him because, this story, no one could stop from getting out… Adam."

"Azrael fell in love with Adam?" Linda exclaimed. "But, I'm sorry for sounding like a church school child here but, if there was an Adam, wasn't there an Eve?"

"Oh yes, yes there was. Particularly fetching, Eve was," Lucifer replied with his usual sly grin when he was talking about women.

"Wait, isn't this the part of the story where you come in?"

Lucifer sighed, "Yes. Not one of my finer moments I'll admit. Cost me everything. But Father really did blow it out of proportion. It's not as bad as the stories will have it. It's gotten overly simplified through the various recounts. The truth is, I was just trying to help my sister."

Lucifer moved back to the couch to sit down.

"I think you're going to have to give me a bit more detail on this one, Lucifer," Linda encouraged.

"The story in the Bible is, of course, absolute nonsense. No one gave a hoot if anyone ate any damn apples. No, what Father forbade was us mixing with the humans… in the biblical sense… if you'll forgive the pun."

"Ohhh, I see," Linda nodded understanding this version that made a lot more sense.

"Azrael had been pining for her love for what could have been years but never acted upon it because she always obeyed Father… Everyone did up to that point, even me. But then… I finally had an idea."

"And what was that?"

"I would seduce Eve. Proving to Father and everyone that nothing would change if I did. That way, Azrael and Adam could be together."

"I'm seeing some issues here," Linda offered.

"Yes, well hindsight is twenty twenty. And omniscience was never my power," Lucifer replied bitterly.

"So you seduced Eve… successfully."

"Oh boy, did she have a good time. You have to understand this was eons ago. Everything was all very new, especially for humans."

"And then what happened?"

"Well, nothing at first. Everything seemed to go on as normal. Eve acted a little smitten but she'd always been fond of me… Which is why I told Azrael everything was fine. Even Eve was fine with it… I might have even told Azrael that Father had given her his blessing."

"Lucifer, you didn't!" Linda exclaimed.

"And the rest as they say is history. Father was furious. He started to notice how differently all his children began to act. He absolutely lost his mind. To this day, I don't think he's ever been as angry as he was that day. You want fire and brimstone? You should have been around that night," Lucifer scoffed.

"He banished me to Hell when he found out it was really all my fault. But somehow I think Azrael got the worse end of the stick." He looked at Linda squarely as he said the next bit. "She changed overnight. Gone was the sweet joyful girl. She became distant, reserved, never laughing. She retained her kindness, the sweet thing. Never blamed me for anything. Not in all those years that we've had dealings together, as you can imagine, did she complain about her job or about me...But every soul that entered Hell was a reminder how I had ruined my sister's happiness and I felt guilt every day. The closest I ever came to it was when I killed Uriel."

Lucifer seemed to be choking up but he quickly regained his composure.

Linda didn't know what to say.

Lucifer stared at her and let out a small laugh, "I'm sorry. You asked me for a positive story didn't you?"

Lucifer waltzed into his apartment and headed straight for the bar, not noticing the dark figure sat on his couch.

"Hello brother."

Lucifer jumped and turned to face her.

"Azrael?! Are you? How did you? Did I? What are you doing here?"

"Shock at the sign of Death. Please, brother, you know how I hate clichés. What do you think I'm doing here? I want my blade back."

Lucifer was at a loss of words.

Azrael sighed. "I know about Uriel. That blade has been my constant companion for millennia. I know when it acts. I have mourned. As should you. It's not every day you hear of the death of a celestial being but, fortunately, it's beyond my remit. I would simply like my blade back. Business has been a little slow without it. In your absence, I have needed to take up your duties of deciding who goes to Hell… and, as you know, it helps me make the decision."

Lucifer looked sympathetically at her, "Oh Azzy, I'm sorry. I didn't think Dad would make you do that." He moved to sit next to her on the couch.

"Yes, well, division of chores is what every family needs," she replied humourlessly.

"Azzy, you can't go on like this. You've been doing this for years. You need a break. Have bloody Michael do it instead of tooting his own horn all the time. Let him have a feel of what a real job is like."

Azrael scoffed with a light smile, the closest she ever came to laughter.

"I don't want to change jobs Lucifer."

"Well, it is rather fitting that the Angel of Death is the only creature who actually enjoys it. Even if it is grim." Lucifer got up to make a drink.

"I don't enjoy it Lucifer," Azrael's voice rose. "I watch the heirs of the man I loved die every single day. I see him in each and every one of them. This is my penance for being arrogant. For thinking I could have it all, for thinking only of myself and my needs." She turned her face, trying to stop herself from weeping.

Lucifer rushed over to her and hugged her. "Oh sis, this is why you shouldn't come here. It upsets you every time you do. Why didn't you just send a messenger if all you wanted was the blade?"

Azrael wiped her tears.

"I came here to warn you, brother… and I'll admit I wanted to see Mother. I've missed her. We had a chat earlier. We talked some things out."

Lucifer smiled at his baby sister. "You always were the kindest of us all."

Azrael got up. "Lucifer, I can't stay long. You know how it is. If I'm gone too long then alarm bells really will go off. Like I said, I came to warn you."

Lucifer got up as well. "Ok, about what?"

"Firstly, Father knows about Uriel."

Lucifer's face whitened and he moved to pour himself a drink.

"He's sending Michael."

Lucifer gulped the drink and quickly re-filled.

"Great. The most arrogant, conceited, insufferable… oh and did I mention the most powerful of God's sons is coming to kick his little brother's ass! Fantastic."

"Lucifer… I came to warn you about something else," Azrael continued.

Lucifer stared at her unimpressed.

"Being the Angel of Death does come with one perk. I feel love. When I don't feel grief I feel love. I can sense it in others… and now I've sensed it in you."

Lucifer looked confused.

She continued, "Brother, the reason you are weak around Chloe is because you are in love with her… I know because that's what happened to me when I fell in love with Adam."


End file.
